God Save The Queen
by Gariand
Summary: Series of drabbles. "Only when I came to America did I think of myself as British." - Naveen Andrews
1. Jaywalking

**God Save the Queen**

_Only when I came to America did I think of myself as British._

_- _**_Naveen Andrews_**

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**a/n. Rightio, well, first of all I'm writing for the first time in this fandom, one that I have recently grown to love, and I've been racking my brains for a while now on a suitable way to make an impression into it. Then suddenly, while reading "Show Me Fifty Times And I'll Believe You" by The Illustrious Crackpot here, I came across the term "jaywalking". And on that note, I'll let you read the drabble before continuing with my explanation.**

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_Jaywalking_

"Ferb! Wait! Don't cross there!"

The boy in reference stared back at his red-haired compadre, a look of confusion knitted in his usually stoic eyes and one foot hovering over the edge of the sidewalk.

Phineas quickly pulled Ferb back with one hand, his other pointed towards a camera situated directly across from them. "You can't cross here, that camera's on twenty four hours a day."

The bemused look did not fade from Ferb's face, as his eyes flickered between the device and Phineas, as if that way he could somehow make sense out of it. When enlightenment didn't come, he gave in, and in a rare show of his intellect being defeated, he posed the question to his clearly more streetwise stepbrother.

"Are you trying to tell me that I can't cross here, simply because of the camera?"

Phineas almost took a step back in shock, before raising a hand to his head, and letting out a small laugh. "I forgot, didn't I? Mom told me that you guys don't have jaywalking laws in England."

_Jay... walking? _It wasn't often that Ferb had to learn something completely new, but this appeared to be just one of those times. Phineas began trying to coax him closer to the end of the road, simultaneously jabbering on in his incessant manner. "Look, there's a crossing at the end, you've got to cross there, it's the law. I mean, if the camera catches you crossing here instead of where you're supposed to, you can get a fine, especially if you do something reckless when there's loadsa traffic about. I heard, that one time, even Buford did...."

But Ferb had stopped listening at this point, instead contemplating over what he considered to be simply an absurd law (after all, in Britain, people obtained fines for speeding cars, graffiti and parking on double yellow lines, not merely crossing the road), and at the same time remembering the words that his grandfather had said to him when he found out that both him and his father were moving to America.

Indeed, Yanks ARE weird people.

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**a/n continuation**

**You see, being English myself, I had absolutely no idea what this meant, so I looked it up, and nearly died laughing at the idea that there are laws regarding crossing a road, and then suddenly, an idea hit me. In the show, I love all the little British insertions or the little comparisons between Britain and America, my personal favourite being "You know, we drive on the right" in Traffic Cam Caper. So then I thought "How weird would it be for Ferb and Lawrence in America to have to get used to all the little differences that exist?"**

**And so, this series of drabbles was born. I have to apologise firstly if I got anything wrong about jaywalking or something in this chapter, so please tell me if I have (my incite for you to review :D) and secondly, because I wish to continue this, please send me ideas of Americanisms/Britishisms that you think would be good to comment on.**

**So yeah, first drabble up. I may even write a little more later today; I had fun doing this, and with it not being very long, updates shouldn't take too long either.**

**EDIT: I have edited this chapter slightly, to coincide with some innacurate information that was pointed out to me by Qwwerty. Thanks, buddy! :D**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Gari.**


	2. Direction

_Direction_

Lawrence was the kind of man who kept everything in a specific order; his treasured memories in a toolbox, his painting by numbers set in his study and his vast amounts of antiques in various boxes around the house. Despite it not being in a particularly orderly order, it was his order nonetheless, and he could find anything with ease in this manner. And so it always stunned Linda, at how this man, who could find his old fishing set and Love Handel records in record time amongst the junk that he owned, that every single time he got into his car, he would always enter on the wrong side.

"Lawrence," she sighed once again, as he rolled down the passenger window to accommodate her gentle reminder. "You've done it again."

_And then_, he would always wear the same look of bewilderment as she said this, which both infuriated and amused her, before he would glance to the steering wheel to the left of him and exclaim the same thing every single time.

"Ah, so I did!"

Linda would have throttled the man if she didn't find it so endearing at the same time. Yes, she could appreciate that after driving for around twenty years on a certain side of the road, then it would be a difficult habit to break, and lapses into that could be slightly acceptable, but the same thing happened every day. It was almost as if he did it on purpose just to see the vein appear on her forehead whenever yet another traffic fine was posted through the door. However a separate part of Linda knew that he would never do anything to deliberately annoy her; he just happened to be very good at doing it accidentally.

Yet as much as she (mostly) managed to control her temper with him, and despite her undeniable inability to remain mad at him, she had promised herself to never, _ever _give Lawrence the keys to her car.

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**Yeah, bit of a continuation from the little scene in Traffic Cam Caper. To be honest, I have no idea if they even have separate cars in the show. I've driven in France, where they also drive on the right, and it is INCREDIBLY difficult to remember to keep to the opposite side that you normally drive on, so I can sympathise with Lawrence on this one.**

**And special thanks to Qwwerty; I've fixed the little inaccuracies in the previous chapter now. :)**

**Also, thanks for reading! **

**Gari.**


	3. Integration

_Integration_

There were many things in America that Ferb Fletcher could accept. For one, despite his father's constant ineptitude in remembering to "sit on the left, drive on the right", the younger Fletcher had learned quickly when to grab the wheel and tug the car back into a safe position whilst Lawrence drove on, whistling merrily to the radio, unaware of the danger that he could potentially have flung him and any of his prone passengers into.

This and many more aspects had become the objects of Ferb's study; in his attempts to fit in with his peers, and to fully integrate into the society that he had been thrust into, so much so that he almost felt like an outsider when he returned to "Blighty", as his father sometimes called it. So used was he now to the idea of street names that could be numbers, and that there was a President in place of the Prime Minister, that even his grandmother had remarked on more than one occasion "Cor blimey, Reg, our Ferb has become a proper Yank!"

It wasn't that he minded these comments, but Ferb was very careful to retain his heritage and make it clear to others that he was proud of it. After all, he had been mimicking his father's speech patterns habitually, and thanks to the wonders of the internet, had made sure that he was up to date with every new event that occurred in Britain, even if it was only updates of the newest costume drama that the British Broadcasting Company had revealed that they would be showing.

In this way, Ferb had become what he saw as the ideal amalgamation of Britain and America. He was certainly able to integrate well in American society, but without sacrificing his British roots. There was quite possibly only one difference in society that he could not stand; Ferb would always cringe when Phineas referred to the first Harry Potter book as "The Sorcerer's Stone".

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**Yeah, I **_**really **_**hated the way that they changed the name for the American public. It's blasphemy. :D**

**Anywho, thank you to my first two reviewers, and the ideas you've given me; I've had quite a ideas simply spring into my head, and about half a dozen half finished little drabbles. If I can keep it to a minimum of at least one a day for the next week or so, I'll be happy with this :D I can see this being my little side project thing; there are so many awesome comparisons between Blighty and America that I'm dying to get on paper, and this has truly introduced me to a love of drabbles; they're brilliant for just short little fun things to type in the spare time :D.**

**Thank you for reading!**

**Gari.**


	4. Offside

_Offside_

Funnily enough, the Flynn side of the family could never understand why their British counterparts had such a fascination with soccer; Lawrence could spend nearly an hour scouring the news for "updates on the Premiership" and, more than once, Phineas and Ferb had returned from playing simple street sports, the former remarking at length on how the latter "is the most amazing goalie I've ever seen!"

This had amused Linda, as even Lawrence had boasted to her many times on how he had brought up his son to love "the beautiful game" and given blow by blow accounts of all the penalty shots that he had taught him even from a very young age. Most of what he had told her had just confused her; after all, America focused more on football, and not even the British Premier League could compete with the excitement that the Superbowl conjured up. Even herself and Candace, who were not avid football fans, couldn't help themselves donning oversized hands and screaming out their favourite team's name frantically at the TV.

And so when Linda had heard that the Danville Pee-Wee Soccer Team was in need of a coach, it was no surprise that only the day after she had barely mentioned it in passing, he had returned to the house, sporting a bright blue baseball cap and a whistle and reminiscing wildly about how "my own father had taught me to play football when I were a lad". Phineas and Ferb had been the first to sign up, and after much persuading, Buford and Baljeet had followed suit. And despite not even having enough players for even half the team needed, Lawrence had not let his optimistic attitude fail even though the first match was less than a week away.

"You'll see, Linda. Americans aren't all about the pigskin. They'll come round to the idea of footb... I mean, soccer, soon enough."

Less than a week had become two days, and even though all the odds were against the team even being able to play in the first game of the tournament, she had found quite often that Phineas had returned early from practice, complaining loudly about the two Fletchers; "Honestly, Mom, it's like a whole different thing with them. It's just a game."

And she would begin to understand just what he meant when they wouldn't return until two hours later, splattered with mud, and even the usually silent Ferb discussing tactics as they walked through the door. And even if Linda would try to remind them that they still didn't have a full team together yet, Lawrence would still not allow any negativity on the subject.

"I know it's rather late, but it doesn't mean that some lads won't have a change of heart. You never know, soccer may be more appreciated than you think."

She honestly hadn't the heart to wipe off the jovial smile on his face, so with a mere "Of course, dear" and intricate plans to bribe every single neighbourhood child with batches of homemade cookies, Linda would just have to accept that she would never truly understand just _why_ the Brits loved soccer so much.

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**Personally, I love football... I mean soccer :D And I can't even explain it; my father loves soccer, my grandparents love soccer, my friends' parents love soccer. Everywhere, on the news, in the papers, there are updates on the soccer. On days when matches take place, you can't get anywhere in town centres. :D We are a nation of soccer, so Lawrence and Ferb must have at least **_**some **_**interest in it.**

**Anyway, thanks for reading!**

**Gari.**


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